In southern Stockholm, an autonomous truck delivers products destined for fast food. This pilot project is led by the Swedish manufacturer Scania.
Driving the highway south of Stockholm, the driver of this truck is attentive to the road and has everything a conventional trucker can. With one detail: Anyone sitting in these forty tons has no hands on the wheel. The Swedish manufacturer with the iconic Griffin Scania is not the only one developing autonomous vehicles, but recently became the first in Europe to use them to deliver goods.
The latter are “taken from point A to point B, and they do it completely autonomously,” Peter Hafmar, head of automatic solutions at Scania, told AFP from outside the manufacturer’s laboratory in Södertälje, south of Stockholm. In this pilot project, the autonomous truck drives between Södertälje and Jönköping in southern Sweden to deliver products for fast-food restaurants.
From the outside, the truck looks like a conventional truck, except for a roof rail adorned with cameras and detectors on the sides resembling insect antennae. Inside, while the steering wheel and seats are in the expected place, the driver’s console is littered with small devices and screens, with cables leading to the hidden computer bay behind the passenger seat.
Lots of trial and error
Engineer Göran Fjällid, in the passenger seat, has his eyes on his laptop screen, which is receiving video from the truck’s cameras, as well as text about what the vehicle is seeing. A second screen shows a 3D visualization of the truck on the road and surrounding vehicles. “When the road markings disappear for a while, we use the GPS system and it (the truck, ed.) stays perfectly on its line,” explains Göran Fjällid.
According to him, the truck “drives itself better than when driven manually”. But according to the engineer, it took a lot of trial and error to get to this conclusion. Some adjustments will have been necessary, such as the way the truck handles entering the Autobahn and how it behaves when a vehicle overtakes it.
Göran Fjällid records any unexpected reaction from the truck – like braking or slowing down for no apparent reason – and then examines all the data. All detectors are also calibrated daily before each departure. According to Peter Hafmar, there are still some technological and legal difficulties that need to be overcome before these self-driving trucks become popular. “We expect them to be ready by the late 2020s, early 2030s,” he explains.
lack of drivers
Will the arrival of self-driving trucks pose a threat to truck drivers, one of the most plentiful jobs in the world? For Mr. Hafmar, these vehicles are primarily a response to the shortage of drivers around the world. According to a report by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) published in June, around 2.6 million truck drivers will be missing worldwide in 2021.
For Peter Hafmar, it will still be some time before artificial intelligence can handle all of the logistics. Self-driving trucks are certainly intended for long distances initially, leaving the last mile to the drivers, he adds.
Autonomous vehicles have other advantages, he points out: Since computers don’t need to sleep or rest, journeys can be planned at any time of the day or night when traffic is less dense. Trucks can also drive slower – but longer – to save fuel.
Other companies in the running
Other companies are in the race for self-driving trucks. Startups such as Aurora, Waymo, Emnark Kodiak and Torc (with Daimler) are conducting trials in the USA. In China, Baidu also announced the release of an autonomous truck in late 2021. In Europe, manufacturer Iveco, which works with startup Plus (backed by Amazon), recently announced the end of its first phase of track testing and will start road testing.
On the Swedish side, Einride plans to start road tests in Germany soon.